Not A Busy Week

As I said on Monday night, there was nothing really to make this week particularly stressful. Last week saw the most of it - French exams, Tom's sellout show and the dreaded VT assemblies. I actually got a round of applause from students in Tuesday's assembly, which I thought was uber kind of them...

My Tuesday cycle to Lutterworth plans evaporated in favour of sitting on my arse, although I did have to make a special outing to Leire to comfort one certain young lady who's not having the best of times at the moment. Sadly, Captain decided to call, in search of a phone connection point, and inform me that we're re-designing our command room in the summer. Yet again.

Wednesday I was supposed to go to the dentist, but decided I'd rather do some chemistry as apparently I've got an exam coming up, I don't know if you've heard? Photography course after school was cheered up by Rupert, who thinks that three times of camera supports are a tripod, a monopod...and a rock. Spent an hour or more out with Coddy that evening, who seems to think that cows can talk to each other have accents and maybe cannot understand cows from other parts of the world. Northern idiot.

Thursday I cycled over to South Wigston to meet with the PR people behind the June parade that we're photographing. Katie and Emilia, our guest photographers for the event came with me and we had a short half an hour chatting to a lovely Irish man and a lady who shouted at her phone. Followed by the worst Croft Players singing group meeting in...well, the three weeks of it's existence.

I did stay up till half 2 and watch the general election results. I figured the election is like a cross between Eurovision and Conclave. It's a big song and dance and goes on for so long people lose interest...

Friday panned out like any other Friday, although I don't usually fall asleep at 8pm. It worked out well, though, because the new people that are moving in next door decided to start banging at half nine this morning, annoying gits. Better be decent neighbours, or I'm wacking up the Dolly Parton...

"The day we're born we start to die, don't waste one minute of your life...get to livin'..."

Behind The Curtain, In The Pantomime...

It's opening night. Well, it's still the morning but that's not the point...

And in true form, let's have a complaint. I'M ILL!! Woke up with a blocked nose, a horrid cough and the return of my ear problem. My feet are sore from my trek with Daisy the other day. I'm tired, as me and Taz stayed as late as possible to plot LX.

But it's opening night - I'm nervous, anxious, and incredibly excited.

But this also means it's the last Thursday of the Easter break, which has flown by. I've hardly done anything, although I did get some photographs of Hannah that are lovely...

And it's also nice to see I'm getting a bit of interest on Flickr....reeesult!

Made contact with the Emerald Isle this morning, chatting to Greg about various odd Volkswagen events that are kicking off this summer. Hopefully going to Bug Jam, in July, and Greg's chatting about a VW tour around Ireland, called Eireball - looks very amusing.

So, I suppose things aren't so bad, really. I shall of course let you know how the show goes...

"You know you love me"

Oh, a five minute break? Cheers.

It's a busy world, theatre. I'm not complaining much, it's just that I've barely had ten minutes since Thursday to sit down and relax - and it's Wednesday today.

With various raves and rig sessions, all in lovely sunny (not) Croft, it's been a mad couple of days. However the lighting for the show is almost good to go, and rehearsals are coming along nicely - still shoddy, but it's the first time we've done it on the stage and to be honest these things are expected to a degree.

Had a nice few days with Harvey, at varying levels of intoxication but it's been great. And Ryan too, in an odd way. He punched me in the face. Hard. Mehh. I did however get interviewed for Radio Leicester, which will be played next Thursday - listen out for me kids!

Life goes on, and whilst we've got few days before the curtain goes up for the first time, I'm feeling the excitement already. Long, hard rehearsals are paying off and we're getting somewhere...

Get your tickets - www.croftplayers.co.uk!

"You know you love me"

Decisions, Decisions...

The title for this blog is quite possible the most popular ever, especially if you read some of the word vomit that I do. Some people seem to think that their life should be posted upon the Internet every single day, and whilst this gives them some odd sense of self satisfaction, to be honest, nobody's reading. Or watching, if you're completely mentally deficient and record video blogs.

Today has been a long, bust theatrical day. 1:15pm, I hosted the Jaffa Cake eating competition which would have been fine if I'd remembered where I put the Jaffa Cakes. Meera, who was running the event, got a bit miffed at me, and gave me evils as I cheered on some chav to scaff a pack of Jaffas in 2minutes eighteen seconds. This was followed by a quick jaunt to the Library to print of some floorplans for the Croft Show.

Then maybe a lesson? Fourty minutes which the Neeson film Taken in RE, then to the auditorium to help last-minute rigging for the Talent Contest.

Now, school Talent shows often get a lot of stick for, simply, being shite. But you never get that at Lutterworth - because we do actually have talent. And this show ran a lot better than last year, we all enjoyed it more. However it was backbreaking with just Taran and I backstage, and I was hosting it as well. We remembered the old theatre adage that we'd certainly spouted last year...

Never Again.

But all in all, it was a fantastic show. I kept switching ties throughout the show through three colours to see how many people noticed. Not everyone. And my procrastinating skills are ever increasing, after looking at my watch with thirty minutes to go and no acts left to perform. A hasty and hushed conversation between Taz and I backstage was seamlessly interrupted by a by standing guitarist - "Mate, have you got a wireless pickup?" What stood here in a suit and tie? Feck off.

The beautifully talented Becky Orton won, and if you've never heard her music get your ass on YouTube now. The rest of this post - in fact the entire blog - is garbage compared to her.

It comes back to decisions. Those artists made a big decision to get on stage in front of 230+ people. Tomorrow, I have to tell a girl that she bluntly isn't wanted at a party we're throiwng this weekend. Sunday, I have to decide a safe way to rig the auditorium for the Croft Players show.

Every single action we take is a consequence of a decision - and nobody has time to waste in making them. Anybody who watched Married Single Other this week and last will know what I mean. Life is simply too short. Ask anybody who's lost a brother, a sister, a best friend. They'll tell you exactly how short life is. Some people never get the chance to make the decisions you don't even bother worrying about. Some people are taken from us too soon, and it is impossible to predict who is next.

We can't make the right decisions all the time, and in theatre and photography you can learn the most by making the wrong ones. But some are simple. Some are so dead straight and obvious that making the wrong one shout raise huge mental flags. Some wrong decisions could cost lives.

And nobody can play Monopoly with that sort of currency.

Peace.

When A Plan Comes Together

It's that time of year again when our scripts are engraved into our heads, dance steps are rehearsed and rehearsed again, and every Tuesday and Wednesday night is lost to the theatre.

Polish your dancing shoes, kids - Croft Players return.

Producer Janice informed us last night that we have six rehearsals left until we get an audience is...just six. Wow.

I know Scene One. I know Scene Six too - that's only one line. But the introduction of dancing has really thrown any coherent memory of song lyrics, and yet again it's hard to find that balance between right steps and right words. As I said on stage last year, "Oh, Bollocks...."

I made a bit of a cock up - the phone number and Sat Matinee time on the posters were wrong. It actually got me down last night, since they've been printed, laminated and distributed. Fail.

Let's hope there're no such cock ups on the programmes, hey...

I'm also designing, rigging, colouring, focusing and programming the lights this year - and it's looking quite good, to be honest. Always nice to have that little bit extra, you know? This is our 35th anniversary show, and it'd be nice if we managed to do it well...

However, we are rigging the day after Hannah's birthday party. That'll be interesting!

www.croftplayers.co.uk

Don't Go Into Theatre.

This post is dedicated to Taran Maguire, who sadly is still with us. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time...

Don't go into theatre, kids. It's stressful, tiring and not worth the hassle.

Right, lads, let's have some video...

Yes, it was a great weekend for Michelle and her girls did really well, they had a great show. And the light and sound wern't too bad either. A bit of clarification, in that video I say that the desk and the computer "wern't talking to each other" and by this I do not mean that they'd had a bit of a fall out. I mean they electronically were not interfacing.

They hadn't had a little tiff in the car on the way to the venue.

And to be honest it did kinda hinder the smooth running of the day, we had to do a few bits of lighting off the cuff, which to watch was a little like me playing piano on the desk for the chase scenes....

Taz did the filming, and he was good to have around for the day. As was Liam Payne, who gave up his day to keep me calm and thinking technically, which he did well and I'm grateful for.

So now the show's over and I'm looking forward to the next one - Croft Players, 8th April onwards...

Looking good - I just happen to know the rig at Croft uses ancient Patt 123 fresnels, which are 165mm gel frames. Hey, guess what I don't have any of... Actually that reminds me, I should make a trip to Thomas Estley and retrieve my gels from their lights from the show - I did invoice them for them but they never got back to me...

In other news, the Winter Olympics are playing hell with my sleeping patterns...but Amy Williams is going for gold in the Skeleton tonight. And Curling is a fascinating sport.

I went out to take some pictures today. I was out ten minutes, and then me and Kenneth got caught in an absolute blizzard. I am no longer a fan of snow. I'd taken a grand total of 14 pictures... but I have bought a 3 stop ND filter!

Finally, yes, a rant. Live Eastenders tonight. WOO! No. Don't ever go near a theatre, you can;t act and I'll be stood centre stage waiting for you with a shotgun. Everyone's like "Oh, 17 million people watching, wow..."

Piss off. Lady Diana's funeral was watched live by 2.5 billion people worldwide, and she didn't bat an eyelid...

What? Too soon?

Physics and Photoshop

It's been another long week, and all I've done all week is upset people. Never fun.

I headbutting Katie was too far, but every one else asked for it. Especially Amelia, who spent a large part of Thursday night's drama session complaining about her throat herpes. Bugger off.

We're at the last weekend before science exams. Biology first. I must remember to choose the stupid answers, as they seem to be the right ones - "She remembers she needs to turn left when she smells the sweet factory." This woman should not be allowed to drive.

Physics and Biology are looking fair, but Chemsitry will be a total blag. This is not entirely my fault. It's more the fact that half the subject hasn't been taught to us. Between a revision session with another teacher and the godsend of CGP revision guides, Rupert and I learnt more about atoms and the like than we've been taught so far this academic year - and we're about half way through it.

I've finally got round to improving some photos in Photoshop - mainly because DI are madly booked for February and I'll never get time if I leave it much longer. I should probably start with the Fiona pictures from Halloween, but I got so sidetracked with my robins this morning I lost an hour somewhere...

I'm not complaining, I'm actually quite pleased with some of my pictures. Which is good for my morale, because Kenneth has been sat in his bag for a week, all dejected. But this is not a pleasant time of year to be outside taking pictures.

My LeCAP form is nearly complete - I'm applying for Leicester and Brooksby Melton. I've also put in for Lutterworth's Post-16, with my choices made in three minutes flat on Friday morning...followed by a classic "Oh, Bollocks!" moment when Dave pointed out it needed to be signed by my parents. Morale of the story, kids, is deadlines are not the time to be doing your application forms...

Best of luck to everyone who're taking exams in the next two weeks x

Best Wishes for 2010

So today's post is a bit more from the heart than usual.

STILL no photography done, today was a bit wasted but I did have a great chat with Peter about next year's Croft Players show...it's a Panto.

Oh no, it isn't!